Cold Case Files
by BobWhite
Summary: A group of stories based on new characters and cold cases that pertain to their past. Story titles will be idnetified as a title, then the name of the chapter after the title of the cold case. Full summary inside. R&R 2 find out more.
1. Murder On The Lake: A Day At The Lake

**Full Summary:**

Tyler and Jess were inseparable as kids and Jess's little sister Anna was always hanging around them. What happens when Anna disappears one day while the three are out and about? Will she be found? And what really happened?

**A Day At The Lake:**

**January 13, 1990:**

We were headed out towards the lake; it was a cold and windy winter day. The lake had been frozen solid since Thanksgiving and even though we knew that we should probably not have been on the lake, Anna had wanted to go ice skating so we had gone out onto the lake. There were kids and adults alike skating on the lake so we knew that we would be safe as long as we stayed where everyone else was. We didn't count on the ice starting to melt or that the mystery surrounding our small lake was really true.

The mystery was said to have started when the lake was made, after the damn was built as a power station. We lived on the outskirts of the damn, right on the lake. It was a small town, only about 400 people in all. And it was a mostly a factory town. Most of the people worked either in the damn or in the factories around the town. The school housed all of the kids from kindergarten through high school so we knew all the teachers we were going to have before the next school year started.

This particular day was a Saturday. We had headed out the door when Anna had yelled saying that she wanted to go ice skating and our parents said to take her with us. But we never minded. Anna and my parents weren't the best kind of parents to stay stuck inside with all day. We tended to always want to get out of that house, no matter what the cost was. Anna was holding onto my hand as we sat down on one of the benches and put our skates on. Anna and I had been in competition ice skating for a few years so we always took whatever time we had on our frozen lake and used it to practice, which always won us ribbons since most of the kids that we competed against didn't live in our home town or near the lake.

As we stepped foot onto the lake and skated to where everyone else was, Anna started skating backwards. For a six-year-old, skating backwards and doing tricks was a big thing. Not only were we the only ones that competed, but we were the only ones that were willing to teach the other kids as well seeing as they thought it was cool. Anna didn't get paid for teaching the other kids but because I was twelve, I did. Tyler normally took the money home with him and kept it safe because the whole town knew that if our parents got ahold of that money, I never would see it again.

Everyone was having fun, we were laughing, I had just skated over to a particularly vacant part of the ice and was about to turn around to go back when I heard the first crack. Anna and Tyler were already headed in my direction but by the time they were close enough for me to yell at them to turn around, the ice split under all three of us and we went crashing into the icy lake below. People screamed. Our first reactions were screams. I made a grab for Anna and was able to keep ahold of her until the both of us were pulled under by something. That's when the mystery of the lake became a reality for the three of us.

Tyler was trying to grab at the both of us but because a few of the adults had braved the ice, they had started to pull him out. He kept yelling for us, our names, saying that we were still under the water. The cops and firefighters were called, rescue parties that would go under the water to rescue the two of us. Anna was pulled from my grasp and as we were dragged deeper, I thought I caught a glimpse of some sort of animal pulling us apart. I screamed under the water for Anna and though she struggled to get back to me, we both knew that it wasn't going to happen. I blacked out from all the water going into my body and I saw no more of Anna.

I was pulled from the frigid waters without a pulse. They got me to shore, where Tyler was huddled in a blanket in the back of one of the ambulances. The searchers were still looking for Anna; they started CPR on me to bring me back to the land of the living. They were still performing CPR when Tyler was pushed to the seat in the side of the ambulance and the gurney I was on was pushed into the back of the ambulance. We were raced to the hospital where we were both then raced into the ER. They got me breathing and my heart beating again right about the time our parents showed up. I had an intubation tube down my throat breathing for me and was wrapped in so many blankets to bring my temperature back to normal that my parents didn't even realize that it was me until they were allowed to see me. Tyler's parents hugged him the moment they saw him.

My parents then turned to the cops and asked about their other daughter Anna and were told that the rescuers were still looking for the little girl. They waited by my bedside for news of my sister and for any change in my condition. The news came that the rescuers had to stop looking for Anna as the only thing they were able to find of her was one of her ice skates, which was found floating at the bottom of the lake. No change in my condition was reported and though they were told to go home, my parents stayed by my side, waiting for me to wake up and get better.

Tyler was allowed to see me as soon as he was released from the hospital and into the care of his parents. My parents only nodded at him, but they could tell that he felt responsible for not being able to grab us before being pulled out by the onlookers. He was unable to visit me except that one day because his parents wouldn't let him leave the house. Reporters seemed to be flocking our small town, trying to get a look at the two survivors of a tragedy everyone wanted to forget about.

After The Accident:

Two weeks later, I was awake and almost back to my normal self. My parents took me home, and though I was recuperating, I could tell that they blamed me for Anna's death. When I was finally recovered to where I could go back to school, it was Tyler I wanted to see first. Though I still was expected to do the things I did before the accident, I gave up competitive skating for good and both Tyler and I refused to go anywhere near the lake since the accident. After I graduated from school, Tyler and I drifted apart as I was sent to live in Toronto with my aunt and away from my parents, who had become increasingly hostile towards blamed me for Anna's death and told me regularly that they had wished Anna had been found and not me, that Anna was the one that was supposed to be alive and I was the one that was supposed to be dead.

**Present Day: 2011:**

I was sitting in Parade, watching as everyone filed into the room, waiting for Parade to start. I had just graduated from Rookie Academy, top of my class. And to top it all off, I had just turned twenty-one. Nobody cared that I had just turned twenty-one, though some were a little surprised that someone as young as myself would want to be a cop. I still thought about Anna and what would have happened if the three of us had all made it out of the lake alive, though mostly I was more concerned about what my parents thought now.

They had never stopped looking for Anna's body, though nothing was ever found after the accident. I went back home periodically to see Tyler, and though we both talked about our lives, we knew that they had inexplicably been changed that day so long ago. And we both never went onto the lake again. He had become a guard at the damn and seemed to like it. He was happy that I had chosen to become a cop. He said it showed that I was willing to turn my life around after something so horrible could happen to me. And I would tell him that it had happened to the both of us.

I had been assigned to Training Officer Gail Peck who seemed not to want a Rookie to look after. I didn't seem to mind, we got the job done. I wasn't the only one that had been assigned to the 15th for my probationary time after the Academy. Two other rookies had been assigned as well, and though they had made fast friends with the other cops in the 15th, I was still having a hard time. Most of the cops there seemed to think that I was hiding something from them because I never talked about my past. So what if I didn't want them to know what had happened when I was a child. I didn't mean anything at all, it just meant that I was a private person when it came to my past; most people are.

As it turned out, the year I started at the 15th, they had a new type of squad within the division, completely and totally dedicated to solving the Cold Cases from around Toronto, consisting of cops from different divisions as well but based out of the 15th. On my third month at the 15th, they decided to have a look at one particular Cold Case file to see if they could put an end to the mystery surrounding the case. It was Anna's case and I knew that I couldn't say anything for fear of being kicked off of the case and being told that I was a suspect, even though it had happened to me as well.

When they read Anna's name out loud, my head came up from writing in my notepad. Officer Peck and the other Training Officers had noticed as well at my attention to this particular case. The 15th would be heading to the town to try and locate the missing girl's body and try and solve the case. They were asked to pack a couple bags since they would be staying at the local hotel and working closely with the town's Detectives. I had to look away because I knew that if I went back, people would start to put the pieces together.

The only reason they didn't boot me from the case the second they read Anna's full name (first and last) was because I had taken my aunt's name because I didn't want anything to do with my parents. My aunt had basically raised me from high school on up and she was the one I looked to for support, not my own biological parents. I knew that I would have to tell her as well as call Tyler and let him know what was going on, but those conversations would have to be done in private, away from everyone else.

Would I be able to face my past without alerting those I worked with what was really going on? And how will my parents react to hearing that Anna's case has been reopened?


	2. Going Home

**Going Home:**

**Making The Necessary Calls:**

It was hard to call my aunt and tell her that I was headed home, to work Anna's case. She asked if I had told them that Anna was my sister and I had to tell her no, because I really wanted to find out what had happened to Anna and why she hadn't made it out of the lake with Tyler and me. She then went on to ask if I had called Tyler and my parents yet. I told her that I calling Tyler next and I would just see my parents when I go to town. There was no reason to drudge up old feelings over the phone; we would have plenty of time to talk once I got there. And there was no way I was staying the hotel. Tyler had a house boat that he lived in and I stayed with him every time I went home. I would stay there.

I packed the necessary things I would need, including an extra uniform. Most of the civilian clothes I had were in the guest room of the house boat and he seemed to like that I kept my stuff with him. Even though he lived on the water, he never actually went anywhere near where the accident had occurred. We had promised ourselves that we would never go out that way. Of course, living on a lake, he had had to by a boat, just to keep the persona going. He mostly let people rent it when they wanted. And the local cops rented it whenever they had a case that dealt with the lake in anyway.

It was hard for the both of us to look at the lake, especially me. I knew my parents weren't going to be too happy to see me again. I had just gone up there after graduation to tell them that I had become a cop. They had reiterated that they wished it had been me who died on the lake and not Anna, so my visit was brief. I knew that Tyler would go over there and tell them that I was headed up and thus called him and told him what was going on and would be going on for the better part of the next month. It wasn't the whole of the 15th going up, just the Training Officers, Rookies and detectives that were. Being a rookie that meant I had to go as well because my Training Officer was going.

**Heading Out:**

After hanging up the phone with Tyler, I headed back to the station with my bags. Both Tyler and I had bought our trucks together after he'd come down one weekend round my sixteenth birthday and said we needed our own vehicles so that we could see each other whenever we wanted. So we bought matching trucks, though slightly different colors and all. My aunt had given me the money to buy the truck and his parents had left him everything after they were killed in a car crash some years after the accident.

Most people would kill for the kind of trucks we had gotten and though the Training Officers and other Rookies didn't say it, they knew that I hadn't gotten it just to drive. They could sense that somehow the case they were trying to sole would make a big impact on all of their lives, including mine, though none of them said anything about it. We weren't supposed to be wearing our uniforms while working the case, except when we were told to. Only two 15th squad cars were coming with us, the rest of us were driving our own vehicles.

Officer Shaw had to stay at the precinct cause his wife was about to give birth again and he couldn't head out to help with the case anyways; he'd been injured while running after a suspect and had broken his ankle so he was stuck on desk duty. The other officers said nothing as Peck got into my truck with Diaz and Epstein. Apparently I had drawn the short straw and had to share my ride with three Training Officers. I didn't mind as long as they stayed out of my personal life by asking questions that I wasn't going to be answering.

It was amazing how many personal facts you could suck out of a person when you ask certain questions. Good thing I had my music on or it would have been a disaster. I completely ignored what they were asking on purpose. After a while, they got bored with asking questions and went to talking to themselves, until the phone call of course.

Talking To Tyler:

I had turned down the music when I heard the phone ringing. Using the controls on my steering wheel, I punched the answer button and Tyler's voice could be heard through the speaker system.

"Hey, Ty, what's up?"  
>"Just wondering when you were going to show up in town? I made dinner reservations for the two of us. Thought maybe we could talk."<p>

"Sounds like fun, just so you know, I'm not alone in the truck. Three Training Officers are with me. I got the short end of the stick by getting picked to drive with a bunch of people."

"Well, guess I won't say anything else then. I have talked to the Detectives here though. They want to rent my boat for the investigation. You know that they are thinking about drudging through the lake to see if they can find Anna's body. Seems someone down in Toronto thought it would be a good idea to look through the lake again."

"Hope they don't run amuck of the town under the lake. Or the monster that lives down there."

"Yea and we should know. We were there when Anna died. Hell you nearly died with Anna. If it hadn't been for the rescuers pulling you out when they did, we wouldn't be having this conversation. You tell your parents you were coming into town?"

"Nope, thought I'd leave that to you to do. I'm not their favorite person remember?"

"Yea, I keep forgetting that part. Look I can talk to them, but I don't think they'll like the idea of you working the case. In fact, isn't it a conflict of interest or something like that?"

"Well, if you hadn't brought it up now, no one would have known I was related to Anna until later, much later."

"What, you don't think the detectives would have told them as soon as they saw that you were with everyone? They know you; they know me, hell we grew up with almost all of them. The town is only 400 people big. Not to mention the fact that every time you're in town, they tell us to stay away from the case and the lake. I guess they don't want a repeat of what happened the last time we were on the lake.

"Guess not, do you think the monster still lives down there?"

"Only one way to find out. You still staying with me? I know you hate the local hotel. You can drop your training Officers off at the hotel and head over to the boat."

"Yea that was the plan anyways. No way in hell am I going to be caught in town, that's for sure. My parents would have a field day with that one, that's for sure."

"Do they still blame you for Anna?"

"You know they do Tyler. Hell, if Anna had been the one that survived I highly doubt they would have felt anything for me."

"That can't all be true."

"You were there the first time they said anything about it. You were there when I was sent to live in Toronto with my aunt. Taking her last name was the only way I could think of of getting out from under them. Look, I'll talk to you later. I'm getting weird looks from my Training Officers. See you when I get into town."

"Alright, talk to you later Jess. Nice meeting everyone who's there I guess."

I hung up the phone with the push of a button and stole a glance at the Training Officers. Their faces said it all. I had a lot of explaining to do.

"What the hell was that conversation about? And how do you know Anna?" _Epstein asked._

"She's my little sister, well was my little sister. I was twelve she was six, things happened."

"And this monster you were talking about? It lives in the lake?" _Diaz asked._

"Yeah it does. Tyler and I always blamed it for Anna's death. We never proved it and the only thing they found of her after the accident was her ice skate. We had been skating on the lake when the ice under me cracked and when they skated over to me, we all fell through. Anna and I were dragged down towards the bottom. Before I blacked out, I saw Anna's hand slip from mine and the next thing I remember is waking up in the hospital two weeks later in the ICU. Apparently I had died for a half hour before being brought back to life."

"And the conversation about your parents?" _Peck asked._

"All true. They blamed me for Anna's death and never got over the fact that I lived and Anna died. Guess it goes to show what kind of people should and shouldn't have kids. Let alone adopt."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"They adopted me thinking they couldn't have Anna, then six years later, Anna was born and I being her older sister, she had to do everything with me and Tyler. That's how she happened to be out on the lake when the accident happened. Look, you guys _can not_ tell Best and the others that Anna was my sister. They won't let me work the case and I really need to work this case. I need to be able to find Anna and put this all behind me. So, please?"

"You can forget about us not telling them. And FYI, you will be staying in the hotel, that's where everyone is staying."

"Sorry, but almost all my clothes are over at Tyler's. I always stay with him when I come home! I can drop you guys off at the hotel, but then I'm headed to Tyler's. I'll show up when I'm needed or not needed."

Conversation stopped as I turned the music up once more and began ignoring them again. They didn't mind seeing as I could tell that they were still pissed off at me. Had they know my connection to the case, I probably would have been left back in Toronto.

**Arriving In Town:**

As we drove into town, the long procession line of cops and cars made a lot of the people stop and stare. Then when they recognized my truck, they went back and about their own business. Everyone in town knew that I was a cop and they knew that if my truck was with the two squad cars from Toronto, then we were probably helping the local cops and detectives on a case. I pulled up outside the hotel and after the three Training Officers grabbed their gear and got out of the truck, peeled out of the parking lot headed in a totally different direction. The T.O.'s that had been with me were definitely about to tell them what had conspired during the phone call with Tyler and I didn't want to be anywhere near that conversation.

I pulled up outside the Marina twenty minutes later. Turning the truck off, I grabbed the bags I had packed and got out, locking the truck in the process. I headed for Tyler's boat house and he was waiting when I finally walked up. We hugged and he grabbed one of the bags. I always brought more stuff up when I came because I tended to bring him whatever he left at the house when he came down for a visit.

"So now, that your training officers know about Anna, what do you think is going to happen?"

"They already told me that they were going to tell my superiors about what had been said between the two of us. I'll walk into the precinct tomorrow and be told to turn right around and come back here. There is no way they are going to allow me to work the case."

"Well, they don't really have a choice on that one. Detective Jablonsky was over earlier, when ya'll were on your way here and asked if the two of us would mind going over what had happened that day again and showing them exactly where we fell through, so they can start the search from there. I told him that I would help but that they had to personally ask you to help. We both need to face our fears and go back out onto the lake, and we both know that."

"Yeah, sure. They aren't thinking of going down there are they? Because if they are, it would be a mistake."

"They already have divers and recovery workers staying down at the hotel where the rest of the 15th are staying. They plan on going down."

"What about the town under the water? Don't the detectives believe that it is down there? Don't they believe in the mystery that surrounds the submerged town?"

"I don't know what they believe so I couldn't answer that for you. Come on, let's gets some rest because we have a big day tomorrow. We're supposed to meet them at the lake with the boat so that tells us they want to be there early."

"Alright; look, can we keep the whole scared of the water thing between the two of us? Please?"

"I don't see why not. We can show them on a map and they can go out from there. No way in hell am I getting on the water any more than I am right now."


End file.
